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Canada's Proud Moment

landtuna

landtuna

Those of you who watch hockey know that games between Canadian and American teams feature the anthems of both countries prior to the face off. Several days ago in Edmonton there was a playoff game between the home town Oilers and visiting Ducks. An amazing thing happened as the arena prepared to honor America with its national anthem.

The singer's mic didn't work.

When the singer, a Canadian Country-Western singer, realized he had a dead mic he waved his arms indicating to the crowd to sing along. They did. In perfect pitch and without missing a word the crowd of over 18,000 Canadians sang the Star Spangled Banner.

I ask you, in what other country would that have happened?
 
Wonder if the reverse situation happened in Anaheim, how many Californians would have known O Canada.

The real challenge would be to know it en Francais.
 
TheBigA said:
Wonder if the reverse situation happened in Anaheim, how many Californians would have known O Canada.

The real challenge would be to know it en Francais.
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I think a good percentage of hockey fans, especially in the traditional hockey cities, know the English words to the Canadian anthem, having heard it so often over the years. There are less than 20 lines to it, not hard to remember an anthem that brief if you hear it quite a few times every season.

As for US fans knowing French, that may not be applicable to this hypothetical situation. Do the Ducks play the bilingual version when the Oilers visit or the English version? I'm pretty sure that Edmonton, being in an English-speaking province, only uses the English version at its home games.
 
CTListener said:
Do the Ducks play the bilingual version when the Oilers visit or the English version? I'm pretty sure that Edmonton, being in an English-speaking province, only uses the English version at its home games.
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I've wondered the same thing. In virtually every game I have watched where Montreal plays the French lyrics are sung. If the game is not in Quebec then the English version is used.

There could be exceptions of course.
 
landtuna said:
I've wondered the same thing. In virtually every game I have watched where Montreal plays the French lyrics are sung. If the game is not in Quebec then the English version is used.

There could be exceptions of course.
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I believe Ottawa uses a bilingual version -- starting and ending in English with French in the middle -- because, while Ottawa is in Ontario, neighboring Hull and Gatineau are in Quebec and people in the area speak both languages. Montreal's version is all-French because the province's official language is French.

The Boston Bruins' longtime anthem singer, Rene Rancourt, sings it in English no matter which Canadian team is visiting because, despite his French name, he is a Massachusetts native and fluent only in English.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm sure the fact that Ottawa is the capital of the country also plays a part. Lots of bilingualism there to keep the Francophones happy.
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Perhaps, but its location would have made bilingualism necessary even if it were not the capital. If Vancouver were the capital, I doubt the bilingual anthem would ever be used at Canucks games. There's probably a bigger ethnic Chinese population in Vancouver then ethnic French-Canadian.
 
I mean the crowd jumps in and starts singing the anthem,
obviating the need for the singer. Seems to happen more often
than not at NHL games played in Canada.
 
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